The First Week

We are almost one whole week in with Cupcake’s first litter and I couldn’t be more proud of her as a mama. She has truly been an amazing mom. I honestly wasn’t sure how she would do because she was very unsure of the whole whelping process. Luckily, I was there to help her and she flew through it. So, now that the whelping is out of the way, what does the first week look like? The first three days are spent keeping mama and babies clean by constantly changing pads and bedding and giving mom ample time to bond with her babies. I try to be very hands off during this time unless needed. On day four we begin handling the puppies and introducing their sweet little paws to a different texture. We also begin slowly introducing them to different smells. We do this by putting a drop of lavender, lemon, lime or any scent onto a cotton ball and passing it in front of their nose while holding them. It is very interesting to see which scent they will gravitate towards. Some puppies will like lemon and some won’t and some will love lavender while others may hate it. We take things slowly, after all, we do have eight weeks minimum with them. We mainly focus on getting the puppies somewhat comfortable with being handled during the first two weeks. We won’t start the really fun stuff until they have their eyes open and are a little more steady on their feet. Check back next week for week two’s update.